Guide
Eritrea's 2% diaspora tax explained
Formally a "rehabilitation and recovery tax". In practice, a levy of 2% on the worldwide income of Eritrean nationals living abroad — and one of the few taxes of its kind anywhere.
Eritrean nationals abroad are assessed at 2% of worldwide income. Collection runs through Eritrean embassies and consulates. Payment is widely treated as a precondition for consular services — passports, birth and marriage documentation, property matters at home — which is what gives the levy its force even where a host government has tried to restrict it.
How collection works
Reporting on the process describes people attending an embassy being asked to produce their annual income tax assessment from their country of residence. Officials use that document to calculate what is owed under the 2% levy and issue a payment slip. Accounts also describe visitors being required to hand over phones and other devices before entering.
Use our calculator if you simply want the arithmetic on a given income figure. What counts as assessable income in an individual case is a separate question we cannot answer for you.
What happens if it is not paid
Research into the levy across seven European countries found it is widely perceived as mandatory within the diaspora, and that non-payment can carry consequences ranging from refusal of consular services to reprisals affecting relatives still in Eritrea. Those reported consequences — rather than any enforcement mechanism available to Eritrea in a host country's courts — are what make the levy effective in practice.
How host governments have responded
Several Western governments have moved against collection on their territory, and the UN Security Council has previously addressed Eritrea's use of the diaspora tax. Reporting from 2026 indicates collection has nonetheless continued, with the methods adapting rather than the practice stopping.
If you are being asked to pay in a country that restricts collection, the rules that apply are those of your country of residence. That is a question for a lawyer or a relevant advocacy organisation there — not for a website.